Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood

American Storytelling

by Josepha Sherman, T.K.F. Weisskopf

Gathers children's rhymes and parodies which deal with sex, pregnancy, illness, death, bodily functions, and television

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Childrens, Adult, Parenting

248 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Josepha Sherman was an American author, folklorist, and anthologist. In 1990 she won the Compton Crook Award for the novel The Shining Falcon.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Childhood.

It ain't for sissies.

Let's face it, kids are thugs. They are obsessed with sex, violence and all things gross.

Just listen to some of the crap that comes out of the mouths of babes:

A boy's occupation
Is to stick his preparation
Into a girl's separation
To increase the population
Of the younger generation.
Do you want a demonstration?

Wow! That was from a Bronx sixth grader in 1966.

Or how 'bout this one you may have sung yourself:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school.
We have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule.
We have thrown away our homework and we hanged the principal.
Our school is burning down.

Torture? Hanging authority figures? What's next? Guns?

Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler.
I met here at the door with a loaded .44,
Now she don't teach no more.

Aaaaa!

Published in 1995, this book is a wealth of children's rhymes, some dating back to World War II - Hitler has only got one ball... It was a great sentimental journey for me to revisit all my old favorites - Found a Peanut, The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out, and Miss Mary Mack. The authors include every possible variant, so it does get a little repetitive, but it's an enjoyable read all the same.

Do kids still sing these songs? Or, in these days of politically correct classrooms and hyper-sensitivity to potential violence (like peanut-butter sandwich guns), would a song about hanging the principal merit a trip to the principal's office...or worse? Are we stifling their creativity or taking away a valuable outlet for stress? As the authors mention in their introduction:

The world can be a frightening, confusing place for children. Hemmed in by all its rules, whether natural laws or those laid down by adults, bombarded on all sides by entertainment and advertisements, scared and fascinated by such specters as death, natural disasters and crime, they strike back against chaos the only way they can: through folklore. Their songs and rhymes fearlessly take on the taboos and terrors of the adult world and turn them into things that can be safely mocked.

It seems weird to say that this book about children is probably NOT FOR CHILDREN, but it is one of the more obscene books I've read. It's also incredibly funny and may bring back some great or painful memories for you depending on who you ending up K-I-S-S-I-N-G during third grade recess.

I'd like to share this rhyme from the seventies that was new to me. It's either unbelievably dirty or amazingly innocent, depending on what goes on in YOUR mind, I guess...

Suzanne was a lady with plenty of class,
Who drove the boys mad when she wiggled her ...
Eyes at the fellows as girls sometimes do,
To make it quite plain she was ready to ...
Go for a walk or a stroll through the grass,
And then hurry home for a nice piece of ...
Ice cream and cake and a piece of roast duck,
And after each meal she was ready to ...
Go for a walk or a stroll on the dock
With any young man with a sizeable ...
Roll of green bills and a pretty good front
And if he talked fast she would show him her ...
Little pet dog that was subject to fits
And maybe let him grab a hold of her ...
Little white hand with a movement so quick,
Then she'd lean over and tickle his ...
Chin while she showed what she learned in France,
And ask the poor fellow to take of his ...
Coat while she sang "Off the Mandalay Shore."
For whatever she was, Suzanne was no bore.

Remember - it's all in YOUR minds, people.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is so hard to wrap my heard around this being a banned book. The authors collected children’s sing songs and rhymes, and their variations across the US, put them in a book. They talk about how and why these songs vary the meaning behind some of them. It is full American childhood folklore. I grew up with my dad singing these songs. They always made me smile but I never knew how much of a cultural phenomenon they were. They are largely gone today. Most children do not know these, and they are not passed down like they were. I love that not only do I have the memory of these rhymes and singsongs, but that someone took the time to collect them and write about them before they are gone forever. So, pull up a bucket of mutilated monkey meat, and enjoy this history of gross songs from childhood.

[Matt Musselman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary had a little lamb.
She gave it castor oil.
And everywhere that Mary went,
It fertilized the soil.

I worked in a bookstore for about a year after university, while deciding where and how to embark on my career, and this book (and several like it) was one of the hidden treasures of the children's department, in a tiny section called "Children's Anthropology."

I finally got around to reading it cover to cover, and it was a lot of fun.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this a long time ago like 2005 or so. Had the children's songs that we collectively passed around in the 1970s as children. Despite being invented and propagated by children a lot of the songs are NSFW. Kids are fascinated by gross and sexual things even though lucky ones never have to deal with such matters as children. Kids of course have a lot to learn but they pick up a lot of what is going on in the adult culture and sing subversive songs about it.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was like a wonderful trip down memory lane. I loved reading rhymes I haven't thought of in 30+ years, along with their regional variations. Soon much fun!

[Hollister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joy. I wish I could feel happiness like this again. The world feels too real.

[Michelle Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been better if the notes were not at the end of book but on each page.

[Thea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a crazy book with crazy content.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A week or two ago, I couldn't go to sleep (as usual) and I also had a "Battle Hymn of the Republic" parody stuck in my head for some reason. A quick web search led to a Wikipedia page, which mentioned this book as a reference. Seeing as how I like funny/dirty poetry as well as social/cultural history, getting this book was a no-brainer. Opening the cover and reading through the introduction, I knew I was going to be for a wild ride down memory lane. While I wasn't familiar with 100% of rhymes (mostly different variations), I remembered most of them from elementary school. The graphic nature of many of them, particularly the ones dealing with bodily functions, took me aback at first but I mostly had a great time reading (and laughing). The only ones that truly bothered me (countable on one hand) were a few racist ones, e.g., a parody of the Oscar Mayer theme song dealing with "Alabama troopers" (from the civil unrest of the 1960's). Concluding the book was a chapter on Barney, which was probably the freshest in my memory of everything covered in the book (being the most recent). As I can attest from my memories of grade school, and as this book shows, kids can be pretty raunchy sometimes, often hilariously so. GREASY GRIMY GOPHER GUTS is more for adults than children, despite many of the entries coming from children, but mostly it's a fascinating look into children's oral culture that still has the capacity to amaze, shock, and induce laughter.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remeber all those songs you sang at camp or in the back of the school bus? This book has complied hundreds of them with many of their regional variations. I haven't come up with a song yet that I couldn't find in here. This is more of a reference book not one you really need to sit and read. I think my parents should have worried about what I was learning back then a little more, slightly disturbing.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this book expecting an analysis of children's rhymes and what they say about our society's fears, etc. It isn't that. It's rather an extensive compilation of rhymes with numerous regional variations, more of a list. If you sang it as a kid, it's in there. I can see the use in it as a reference, but it's not really much to read.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember all those absurd, crude songs you sang when you were a kid?
Tarzan swung on a rubber band.. This book is a compilation of them. Some of them are very crude indeed but if you have a slightly twisted sense of humor, you'll appreciate them. And as the author points out, humor is how kids cope with body functions, stress and growing up.

[Melanti]

Remember all those silly rhymes and songs you sang as kids? This is a catalog of variations on all of them. And I found it interesting there was a dozen versions of "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts", but none of them was exactly like the version I learned as a kid!

It might be interesting someday, but it's not really what I'm in the mood for this week.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember all of those strange schoolyard songs, rhymes, and taunts we all knew as kids? Where did they come from? Many are far older than you may have suspected. This is a great book on a previously neglected subject.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both a walk down memory lane and a discussion of the history and significance of various common subversive childrens' rhymes. I wonder how the rhymes have evolved in the 15 years since the book was published.

[AM · Rating 4 out of 5]

read the end notes as you go... or you'll miss the why's and wherefore's. Don't worry it is worth it.

[Julie Czerneda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Highly recommended to scholars, educators, and any parent wondering what their kids are chanting! (And why.)

[Paul Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

A dull read. Wouldn't recommend it.

[Leah Coffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally immature, disgusting and gross. I loved it. :D